Wading through life to get to the Civil War…

So… the balance of time between getting the new house prepared for moving in, and the old house for going on the market continues. Please pardon the absence of posts.

In the interim (also known as… in the midst of everything I’m doing to accomplish the above), there’s still much time for thinking… and I still think about the Civil War. Oh, yes… to be sure… how can I not? Even if it wasn’t the Sesqui, I’d be thinking about it… that’s just who I am. I just hope… I really hope… that some of the ideas that have bounced around in my head in the interim can return to the surface when I get back to blogging here on a regular basis.

All that said, something continues to ping on me. In the year’s time that has passed since we have entered the Sesqui, I have yet to be as enthralled with a single topic, as I was this time last year with the David Hunter Strother recollections of that time… which is now 151 years in the past.

I have to ask myself, “why so?”

When I mull over this question, I believe I have an answer. Funny as it seems, I don’t quite know why I haven’t thought about it before, but then… I suppose, being on the Sesqui timeline to recognize events of 150 years ago forces some of us to think harder on such matters.

So, what then, is the answer?

The best I can come up with is that I am more fascinated with that time (April 1861) because things were so much in the balance, at that time. They had not quite “gone over the edge of the cliff”, so to speak… especially for Virginia and Maryland… the place which was “home” for the majority of my ancestors. Though we, 151 years after the fact, are quite aware of what came after, that whole “living in the balance” thing never seems to diminish in me (and that’s part of the reason why… at least I think… Harpers Ferry never seems to grow old for me). It was a critical point in time, and, no matter what 150th event has come up over the horizon in the twelve months since… I’ve not been as enthusiastic about the topics as I was about the events of 151 years ago…

Perhaps, however, with considerations of the Sesqui of the 1862 Valley Campaign upon us, that will change… especially when I give consideration of the Valley Campaign from atypical angles… more about the civilians than about the soldiers… though certainly, the lives of those civilians, with Unionists or Confederate sympathies… or even the “leave-aloner’s”… was impacted by what the soldiers were doing here. There’s much to be considered…

I find your suggestion that we are forced to think harder about the actual events of 150 years ago instead of the “Civil War” in general to be right on. Last year, it was very easy for us in Rhode Island (who cared) to recall that Governor William Sprague was ridiculously quick to respond to Lincoln’s initial call for troops. The 1st RI was formed & mobilized in short order and sprinted to Washington, with only one outfit from Massachusetts beating them there. Sprague also rode with his troops into Bull Run, where he had his horse shot out from under him. Which leads us to ’62. Tes, the 2nd RI is pretty famous for being in pretty much every major engagement of the eastern theater, but RI doesn’t seem to have a significant stamp on 1862, with one exception. For better or worse, I consider ’62 to be “The Year of Burnside.” RI’s one-time gunmaker and future governor achieved both his greatest success (New Berne) and his greatest failure (Fredricksburg) in 1862, with the Burnside Bridge episode at Antietem squeezed in there for good measure. Many generals went on record to heap praise on Burnside the man, but also were reticent to discuss his military career… Accounts are littered with statements like “he was stricken with bad luck…” For his part, Burnside never wanted command (and it showed, I suppose). If we take an honest look at 1862 and Rhode Island, we are forced to accept that it is Burnside’s actions that are etched in history as opposed to the words and deeds of the RI boys on the lines.

“If i fall down i will get back up if you push me down i will pull you down with me.” – General Ambrose Burnside (although, it does sound like the epitaph of each new RI politico who gets busted for corruption, fraud or cronyism in the Ocean State. Yet, I still love Little Rhody).

“I find your suggestion that we are forced to think harder about the actual events of 150 years ago instead of the “Civil War” in general to be right on.”

I think, adding to that, while it might seem peculiar to some, there’s also something “mystical” about being at a particular place, exactly 150 years to the date. To that end, I made a trip to a spot near Harpers Ferry last year to be exactly where D.H. Strother drew a sketch, AND was on the battlefield at First Bull Run/Manassas.

Sounds like you need to make a few road trips down this-a’way, Jamie, to get some on-the-field, on the 150th-to-the-date quality Sesqui time. At least give the 150th of Antietam a shot… that has to be THE major on-site Sesqui event this year.

It’s striking to me that my first time being on the Manassas Battlefield was indeed last year, when I was down in your neck of the woods. I experienced some power there, and also at Ball’s Bluff. Yet, the stillness of Antietem was one of the most powerful explorations I’ve ever encountered. Perhaps some places are much bigger than their location on the timeline; not to take anything away from Bull Run or 1861 and the experience of the Sesquicentennial, but Antietem transcended, as I imagine certain other hallowed battlefields do. Hope I can get down there.

Robert–Miss your posts! I can understand completely. Life has a way of getting in the way of the Civil War sometimes. (Imagine that!) That is one of the reasons I had to cut back on the frequency of my own posts.

I also hear you on your point about the Sesqui. Things truly hung in the balance in 1861. I too am finding it difficult to be as interested in the war in Northern Virginia in most of 1862. How can you beat the debate over secession? The tales of intimidation at the polls during the vote on the ordinance? The mobilization of Virginia forces? The “invasion” of Virginia and the occupation of Alexandria? The march to Manassas and the Battle of Bull Run? And that is just the first part of the year. The second half saw the ascendency of McClellan. The armies stared at each other, with the Confederates at one point sitting in view of the Capitol. The whole game had an air of uncertainty and tension about it, as the men drilled and the civilians saw their land and other property taken for use by the armies. Northern Virginia was the “front” in a way it would not be again. I don’t think I can ever just stick to the timeline, but will need to go back to the first year of the war.

Your ideas for the Valley Campaign sound really interesting, so hopefully you will find passion in those for your future posts!

Thanks, Ron! I think that whole early ’61 thing holds so much suspense, and as I mentioned, that might seem really odd to some because we KNOW what happened after.

There are some choice stories pertaining to civilians in the Valley, during 1862, ranging to inflaming sensitivities in both directions, to fueling an exodus out of here (at least temporarily) by others. Will give a shot at tapping into a few of them. It seems funny to be so much more compelled by the civilian story at this point in my life, when I was so into the military part of it earlier in my life.

Thanks re: the house. You and I need to make arrangements sometime to walk some of the local fields in the not-so-distant future… and Craig isn’t too far away to add to the party! I think tracing the movement of the ANV through here in June 2013 sounds like an excellent opportunity.

The cliche is that “all politics is local” and I’ve sometimes thought that “all history is local” might apply as well, but then I read somehthing not near anyplace I live and find that I enjoy it, and that kind of pushes “all history is local” to the back of my mind. Then I see a thread like this where locality is important, not just to me, but to others.

I’m actually getting more excited this year, as the war in the west and northwest gains ground and the Confederate threat to Cincinnati and the battle of Perryvilee approach their 150th anniversaries. This all happened near where I live and then on a battlefied that I can visit fairly easily and inexpensively, and to try to think of what the area was like when Heth’s men came north from Lexington and the panic it caused is rather thrilling to me. Then I think of the carnage at Perryville and its aftermath and the cast of characters involved on that land. Buell. Bragg. Sheridan. Thomas, et al.

I know that “all history is local” is not really true, but I wonder if that might explain, at least to a certain extent, the number of local county & city historical societies in some way.

I can appreciate a “centric” view of history, from a locality. So often, we see history from the top down… the locality thing gives us an opportunity to visit it from the bottom up, and honestly, that puts some kinks in the top down story… often dispersing stereotypes… which I really like to see.

I can imagine you are gearing-up out in your direction. I get a new sense of the same as I settle into my new digs near Winchester, Va., and I’m already looking forward to 2013, and the impact on the area preceding the Gettysburg Campaign.